High bail for suspect in ISU student's death

Charges not related to woman's slaying

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — A McLean County judge Thursday set bail at $540,000 for the prime suspect in the disappearance and death of an Illinois State University student from Berkeley.

Maurice Wallace, 27, of Normal smiled as armed guards led him into Judge Kevin P. Fitzgerald's courtroom. When the judge referred to him as "Mr. Wallace," Wallace loudly responded, "You can call me Maurice." Fitzgerald appointed a public defender, who was not present as Wallace questioned the judge about the charges against him.

"Why are they being so hard, judge?" Wallace asked when Fitzgerald said he faced additional felony counts of aggravated battery besides the count of felony theft that has kept him in custody since Oct. 20.

Neither the new charges nor the felony theft charge are related to the disappearance and death of Olamide Adeyooye, 21, a senior at the university who went missing from her off-campus apartment Oct. 13.

Normal police have named Wallace a suspect in the case, but he has not been charged with a crime related to it. He was extradited this week from an Atlanta jail.

In his initial court appearance, Wallace wore a blue County Jail jumpsuit, had his hands cuffed and chained to a thick leather belt around his waist. Four armed guards accompanied him in the courtroom.

Wallace was animated throughout the brief hearing.

When Fitzgerald told him that bond on the aggravated battery charges was $500,000 more than the $40,000 bond already pending on the felony theft charge, Wallace shouted: "Five hundred thousand dollars for aggravated battery? That's got to be a precedent."

Wallace also faces charges of disorderly conduct and theft.

The new charges filed against Wallace paint a picture of his activities the week that Adeyooye disappeared, according to court documents.

The aggravated battery charges accuse Wallace of grabbing the buttocks of two women Oct. 9 outside an apartment complex near the ISU campus. Previously, Wallace had been charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct for frightening and making lewd comments to two other women on the second-floor of the complex that night. That misdemeanor charge is included in the new charges.

Another disorderly conduct charge accuses Wallace of reacting violently when a male ISU student tried to intervene between Wallace and the women who were outside the complex.

Wallace allegedly told the man he would "put a gun to his head," and that the student had "40 hours to live," according to court documents. Wallace also told the student he would return and stab him and bash in his head, according to the documents.

Wallace must come up with 10 percent of the $540,000 bond to be released from the County Jail. If he does, he would have to surrender his passport, Fitzgerald told him Thursday.

In 2001, after he was convicted of assaulting a cabdriver in Normal, Wallace fled the United States by cashing in a student loan from a community college and buying a plane ticket to London, court documents show. Once there, Wallace requested political asylum, which was denied.

He appealed, then eventually asked to return to the United States after being detained for 10 weeks by immigration service officials, according to court documents.

No one from Wallace's family attended the court hearing, but three people were there who said they were friends. They would not give their names.

Wallace was staying in an apartment on the same block as Adeyooye and disappeared around the same time she did, neighbors said.

Adeyooye's badly burned body was discovered Oct. 21 in rural Mississippi. Her 1996 Toyota Corolla, which also had been missing, was recovered in Atlanta.

Normal police Lt. Mark Kotte said investigators have not received a final autopsy report from Mississippi authorities and still do not know how Adeyooye died.